Burlington fire calls doubled over the last 20 years

May 02--Twice as many people called the Burlington Fire Department for help in 2017 as they did in 1997.

That's the standout fact from this year's annual fire department report, which Fire Chief Mark Trexel presented Monday to the Burlington City Council. It's not a new statistic: the fire department's been dealing with more calls every year for the last several years. Calls increased 7 percent over 2016 figures.

The department handled a total of 5,215 calls in 2017. That includes both medical and fire calls.

Ambulances transported people to Great River Medical Center 1,456 times.

Deputy Fire Chief Don Ryan said they see two major factors driving the rise in calls. An older population is the biggest factor. Trexel's report shows spikes in patients aged 51-to-90.

Second, he said, is nationwide inaccessibility to basic healthcare.

"Lots of people can't afford healthcare or health insurance," Ryan said. "They don't have any other alternatives to turn to. We are a reliable access point for healthcare for people who can't find it elsewhere."

Regardless of the cause, the staffing demands of such a call volume will likely grow to dominate the council's budget conversation in coming years. Burlington added six firefighter positions in 2017 using grant funding that soon starts to taper off. City Manager Jim Ferneau said the positions' cost will start more heavily looming over the council in next year's budget cycle. Then, the year after, things may start to get more difficult as the city's required share of the positions' funding increases.

In his report, Trexel noted that overtime costs were down $60,000 after adding the positions. In 2017, the department also had a low number of injuries, which Ferneau noted are a major driver of overtime costs.

"Sixty-thousand dollars is a significant savings in the department," Ferneau said Tuesday. "But $60,000 of savings for something that costs $500,000 to fund isn't a good cash-flow."

Ferneau, who early in his tenure oversaw a scaling back of the fire department to help balance city deficits, agrees with fire department staff that adding the positions has resulted in better safety services in Burlington. The coming budget crunch will be a question of prioritizing which services need more ample funding.

To fire staff like Ryan, they're aware of the coming budget talks, but trying to make the best of their current staffing.

"We're trying to plan for it," Ryan said. "That's in the future, and I want to take advantage of what we have now. We are using the positions to provide better service and better response times throughout our coverage area. And yes, it's the Burlington Fire Department, but we're serving the area better and we can prove it."

The department responded to 71 structure fires in 2017, 54 of which were residential.

The department's goal for structure-fire response time is 5 minutes and 20 seconds, or 80 seconds to get on the truck and four minutes to arrive on the scene. The department can hit that goal in about half of Burlington.

"A lot of places in Burlington you can't drive there in four minutes, and we struggle with the 80 seconds, especially at night," Trexel told the council.

Ambulance medics in Burlington are using fentanyl more as a strong painkiller alternative to morphine. Medics administered the opioid 156 times in 2017.

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